


Still, but Growing

by BlurbMonster



Category: Naruto
Genre: Aesthetic Sensibilities, F/F, Let Sakura sleep, Multi, Nonexplict Nudity, Post-Canon, Sai loves his friends and wants them to be happy, i don't know anything about flower arranging, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27820669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlurbMonster/pseuds/BlurbMonster
Summary: Sakura and Sai find themselves spending a lot of time together after the war.Featuring: tired hospital worker Sakura, traumatised artist Sai and pining flower lesbian Ino
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Sai, Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Sai & Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 3
Kudos: 84





	Still, but Growing

One of the main things Sakura didn’t want to do when off-shift was move. This lack of movement was preferably paired with a comfortable horizontal surface and a nap. Unfortunately, her own flat was an unacceptable distance from the hospital in her opinion. This is where Sai comes in.

Sai’s flat was a mere 3 minute stumble from the hospital and was always open to determined ex teammates with little headspace for locks or doors. Usually, Sakura determinedly used the popper entrance to buildings and rooms but having Kakashi as a teacher was always going to leave a mark and it’s not as if Sai was going to care.

So, it became routine for Sakura to barge through Sai’s window and make a beeline to his shower before passing out on his bed for a few hours. During this time, Sai would crawl above her- carefully, even a drowsy Sakura hit hard enough to level towns- and begin painting. It sounds much creepier than it was. 

Sakura- a fully trained medic who had done the grim drone work that keeps hospitals running during her genin days- had little reason to be ashamed of her body, especially so soon after a shower. On top of this, Sai’s gase had a strangely comforting edge to it. That is to say, he looked at her so completely sexlessly that it was difficult to find reason to care about modesty. He had the composure of someone carefully inspecting and classifying a specimen, searching it for artistic significance. For all the leaps and bounds he’d made since betraying Root, he still had a tendency to judge beauty through the eyes of a ninja first. Sakura’s body was first and foremost a weapon and a deadly one at that.

Sakura would sleep or doze and Sai would paint her, simple as. To be honest, Sakura- who barely had the time to cook, let alone date- couldn’t deny that the works helped to keep her self-esteem afloat when it was constantly under fire from the sticky feeling of sweat on her skin and the scent of hospital-clean that had taken up permanent residence in her hair. Not to mention, the unease in sleeping that plagued so many of them was easily defeated by an attentive ally and friend. Sai liked… well that was a bit more complicated.

Like previously pointed out, Sai had come far since his time at Root but that didn’t mean he was typical- even on the standard of ninjas, set by shining examples of stability like Kakashi- and he didn’t think he ever would be. He could walk around the village the civilian way without constantly fingering his weapons and his smile was almost convincing now, but he had yet to master conversations that grew beyond the standard pleasantries he had read so much about. This- compounded with the advice that previous Root agents not interact with one another too much to promote integration and healing- resulted in an isolated existence. Sai didn’t mind this. Quiet and empty was easy. Uncomplicated. Even during the Team 7 catchup dinners, when Sai would sit and watch Naruto and Sasuke argue and throw themselves at each other- literally and often violently- it was fine. The easy comradery and din that surrounded them and clashed violently against the bubble of quiet, still and empty that surrounded Sai’s life and that was fine. The contrast was fi-

Then Sakura would march into whatever restaurant- usually Ichiraku- they were eating at, 30 minutes late as always. The inhuman screeches of her reprimands would easily overpower whatever noise the other two were making and then she’d flop into a seat next to Sai. Dinner would continue, Kakashi and Yamato showing up even later than Sakura, and the four of them would mutter commentary to one another about the Sasuke and Naruto Show they had front row seats to. 

Similarly, whenever Sai’s flat felt particularly empty and barren, the window would open. Brash as can be, pink and green and red would walk in and head into the bathroom without even bothering to lock the door behind her. Then Sakura- loud, animated Sakura- would settle into still and Sai would settle in to paint. Painting the gently breathing slopes of her body in stark black and white made them quiet, uncomplicated. With every work, she fit easier and easier into his life.

Because of this, it felt like a natural progression to brush the towel to the side and apply brush to skin. Naturally, Sakura wakes up at this. She looks at him- straddling her now naked body, brush poised and ink already on her skin-, grumbles at him not to draw anything ugl or lewd and drifts off again. Sai does indeed smuggle a dick into his art, banking on Sakura not noticing. Unfortunately for him, the transitive property of Tsunade’s luck only comes into play when her apprentice is actively betting on something.

So now, when she steps into his shower, it is to wash off the remnants of his last work along with the grime of the day and present Sai with a fresh canvas. Now, Sakura walks around each day with a part of Sai under her clothes. He isn’t sure why, but this dissolves the barrier between Sai and the rest of the world. Maybe he’s simply found an effective way of studying the body language people have now that he can feel it through the thrum of his connection to his ink, but it’s effective nonetheless. This newfound skill is how he meets Ino.

Ino is beautiful in everything she does in that terrifying way that signals she could destroy you. She’s like a wasp or a frog, flashing its exotic colours to all but scream ‘I am venomous, just try it’. He would never tell her this. As much as she preens from his stilted compliments, she has a similar reaction to Sakura to any comparison between her looks and insects.

Ino’s taken up in the Yamanaka flower shop since the end of the war, displaying potential products with detailed genjutsu and mixing toxins behind the counter in quiet periods. No one thinks too hard about the way she always knows exactly what a customer is looking for before they do. She shows him how she arranges flowers. She natters her way through the colours and the placement day to day and Sai paints. 

To begin with, he’s far more interested in their shapes lying against one another than their colour; after all, that’s how he paints, with flowing black lines coming together to make something that could (and would if needed) jump out at you. As time passes, however, he begins to think about context. Doodling tulips on Sakura’s chest clash with her hair in a strange way he can’t quite put his finger on. She never seems to notice, smiling down at them and commenting on Sai’s recent fixation on flowers without much thought, but then again it makes sense she doesn’t see the context. Simply by being herself she can’t see the full canvas.

One day, Sai found Ino with a bouquet. Or rather, Sai found Ino with a lot of flowers and even more determination. Pink and green with accents of purple, red and white was an interesting choice. A challenging one too, judging by the way she places flowers and immediately removes them over and over. Any suggestion to maybe switch theme or reduce the number of colours is met with a baleful glare that chases customers at the other end of the shop out and even succeeds in shutting Sai up.

Sai sits, close enough to companionable and far enough away to avoid drawing Ino’s ire by breathing. He inks the displays already in the shop, adding birds and butterflies as he sees fit while Ino huffs over her task, fingers running through her already uncharacteristically mused hair every few minutes. Sai looks at the arrangement she’s made so far. A single, little balloon flower site nestled between pink camelia’s cut with pale green sprigs. The whole thing was cradelled with a ring of white daisies and wrapped in red paper. It was bad. Ino stared at it for a long while before huffing and dismantling the whole thing quickly. An idea began to tickle at Sai’s mind.

Later that evening, straddling a napping Sakura, Sai thought about the arrangement again. He began to draw it across her stomach, the way the petals of the different species ruffled against one another and prevented the arrangement from feeling too monotonous. It sat nicely, especially in the context of Sakura. Without the colour of the flowers themselves, they stopped clashing the way they had for Ino. Despite this, it was not a monochrome piece; the context of the pink in Sakura’s hair, the green of her eyes and the purple of her Byakugou seal seemed to bleed into flowers in a satisfying way that isn't anymore offensive than seeing the colours on her face usually is (he will meantion this to her later and get punched for it). Sai nodded to himself and began working a slug onto her shoulder.

Sakura looked contemplative when she saw the flowers. Unlike with most of his works, she left to look at it in the full length bathroom mirror. Sai wondered absently if she didn’t like it while he began slicing up spring onions for their dinner. It was not a pleasant thought. When she came back through to him, she stared for a moment before asking

“What made you think of this?”

Sai shrugged, “It was something Ino was working on today.”

Sakura hummed, dropped the topic and began helping him cook.

The next day she arrived later than usual, with a flower tucked into her hair.

Things changed after that. Ino would meet Sakura at the hospital entrance, walk with her to Sai's, bully her through the front door "like a civilised human, Sakura" and sit with Sai while she showered. She decided one day she should cook while Sai painted and Sakura slept so they had something to eat when she woke up. Sai doodles a quick rat and lifted the ink off the scrap paper to show Ino around his kitchen. Ino's nose wrinkle of distaste was ignored.

Ino’s presence reduced the quietness of this routine but not in a disruptive way. Sai liked the change; he enjoyed quietly discussing his art with Ino while Sakura slept, enjoyed the food she made as she groused about Sakura and Sai’s very utilitarian approach to food, enjoyed the bickering of the two women as they all ate.

Neither of them could know about the notebook dedicated to his careful replication and cataloguing of their longing glances at each other, the small smirks they shared when referencing a little memory from their childhood, the way their bodies gravitate towards each other when they sit side by side. Perhaps he’ll give it to them somewhere down the line, but for now he’s not sure they know they do it and pointing it out seems like something Sakura would get on his case about.

**Author's Note:**

> One day I'll proofread this. In the meantime RIP you guys, i guess, have fun with my gross overuse of commas and inability to have a consistant tense.
> 
> Anyway, I freaking love fics about Sakura, Sai and Ino. I think this is one of my favourite trios from Naruto and I really want to write more of this. Who knows, maybe this will open the floodgates holding back my 15 thousand Naruto AUs.


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